That's a good basketball team we faced tonight. Great D, lots of athletes, aggressive, well coached.
Their size and quickness overwhelmed us. Turner and Bowden struggled to match that level of athleticism. So did Fulky.
If this game didn't show it, I don't know what will. Get James on the ball and get Turner off it. James is so fluid and has big time downhill handle. Turner is a big time shooter and much better slasher than he used to be. Start making the full move to James to primary 1 ASAP.
They went right at our guards offensively and made them defend. That wears guards out and it's why Bowden couldn't buy a bucket. No legs.
James, Pons, and Gaines belonged on that court athletically. Besides those 3, everyone else was a step slow.
Gaines can defend and can handle his own offensively. Start feeding him consistent minutes.
Barnes didn't have his best night. Allowed an opponent to get up in our jocks all night with defensive pressure and never made adjustments. Our high screen game was terrible. Lots of wild penetration, too much horizontal basketball. Gotta get into a motion O with a ton of back cut action.
Our D was pretty damn solid. Lots of effort, challenged every shot. This was the #1 positive tonight, by far.
Pons' game has come REALLY far. Kudos to Rick and staff. They've really developed that kid. He's here to stay.
We needed that game as a program. That was our first legit game of the year. We'll learn a lot from that and get better. Minutes, rotations, roles. Even though this team was 5-0, we didn't know much about ourselves. Now we do. Gonna be a fun year.
Go Vols.
Their size and quickness overwhelmed us. Turner and Bowden struggled to match that level of athleticism. So did Fulky.
If this game didn't show it, I don't know what will. Get James on the ball and get Turner off it. James is so fluid and has big time downhill handle. Turner is a big time shooter and much better slasher than he used to be. Start making the full move to James to primary 1 ASAP.
They went right at our guards offensively and made them defend. That wears guards out and it's why Bowden couldn't buy a bucket. No legs.
James, Pons, and Gaines belonged on that court athletically. Besides those 3, everyone else was a step slow.
Gaines can defend and can handle his own offensively. Start feeding him consistent minutes.
Barnes didn't have his best night. Allowed an opponent to get up in our jocks all night with defensive pressure and never made adjustments. Our high screen game was terrible. Lots of wild penetration, too much horizontal basketball. Gotta get into a motion O with a ton of back cut action.
Our D was pretty damn solid. Lots of effort, challenged every shot. This was the #1 positive tonight, by far.
Pons' game has come REALLY far. Kudos to Rick and staff. They've really developed that kid. He's here to stay.
We needed that game as a program. That was our first legit game of the year. We'll learn a lot from that and get better. Minutes, rotations, roles. Even though this team was 5-0, we didn't know much about ourselves. Now we do. Gonna be a fun year.
Go Vols.
